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I'm originally from the Midwest, and I heard that often. Pretty sure it's a regional thing. It's certainly not correct, but it's probably a subconscious thing where they want to "pluralize" the word "all" to convey that it's "all the alls" for emphasis.
Also in the Midwest, for "water fountain" they often use the word "bubbler." When I moved to AZ and used that word I got a lot of puzzled stares, and "Oh, you mean water fountain." I quickly revised my vocabulary.
There is an entire set of words that sometimes (sometime?) get an -s thrown in. It seems unlikely to me that they are unrelated. I am curious about how that dialectical ending came about.
For example:
alls
anyways
everywheres, anywheres, somewheres, nowheres
Cletti, does your husband also use some of these? I have recently heard accomplished national newscasters and interviewers use alls and anyways. I'm on the listen for the -wheres versions.
Glenn, I was getting ready to guess that "alls" is a contraction of all as, which would be a corruption or perhaps a much older form of all that. We see "as" used thus in other sentences: "He believes as it's a bit uncanny", "I don't know as we should do it that way", "I will allow as it sounds pretty good". Then I saw your thought about "anyways", "somewheres" and so forth. I still think my idea is worth considering, but I'm less sure of it now than I was.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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